I will have my revenge on Barcelona, vows Lehmann

Bitterness among Arsenal players after their European Cup final defeat is not just directed at the officials. Jens Lehmann has claimed his anger at seeing Barcelona players encourage the referee to send him off will go with him to the grave and the goalkeeper has an eye on revenge. "I didn't say anything but in football and life you always meet twice," he said, "and I will remember what they did."

Lehmann was dismissed during the 18th minute in Paris for tripping Samuel Eto'o and believes the Norwegian referee Terje Hauge, instead of sending him off, could have played on and allowed a goal to stand after Ludovic Giuly put the loose ball into the net. The Germany international saved his greatest ire, though, for the Barcelona players who, he claimed, went to the official to demand a red card.

"I am very depressed," he said. "This is a very sad moment in my career. I thought that Eto'o might be offside when he went through. I didn't want to foul him but the Barcelona players demanded that I get a red card and the referee wasn't very self-confident enough to ignore them.

"I went to see the rest of the match with my family in the stands. I will need a few days to recover from this. But I will remember what Barcelona did to me and take that memory with me to my grave."

Games between Barcelona and Chelsea have taken on extra meaning after their incident-filled meetings in the Champions League over the past two seasons, and Lehmann's words and anger suggest there will be carry-over for Arsenal, too, if the teams meet again.

Having been the hero for his club in the semi-final second leg against Villarreal, saving a late penalty from Juan Roman Riquelme, Lehmann endured a very different experience at Stade de France. "There is a very, very small line between the upside and the downside in football," he reflected. "In Paris I was on the downside, unfortunately."

The 36-year-old feels that Hauge need not have shown the red card. "The decision he made on me could've been different but there you are," Lehmann said. "He could have given the goal instead and nobody can say what the outcome would have been then. I couldn't say anything to him about letting play go on and give the goal. The Barcelona players were around him immediately."

Lehmann argued Arsenal had been "a little bit unlucky" that Hauge, who sent of Chelsea's Asier del Horno against Barcelona in February, took charge of the game, though the referee also helped Arsenal by awarding the free-kick from which Sol Campbell scored after Emmanuel Eboué, who had aleady been booked, dived. The keeper acknowledged Hauge had a tough task. "Sometimes it's difficult for a referee when they have two sides who are capable of playing very fast football," he said. "It's not that easy for referees to make decisions."

Lehmann added that experiencing one European Cup final had made him desperate for the next one. "In my experience you always learn from the bad experiences. We hope to be better next year, more competitive in the Premiership."

Campbell is another who believes Arsenal can draw strength from the disappointment. He noted they responded to the dismay of being second to Manchester United in the Premiership in 2003 by going unbeaten in the league to win the title the following season. "When we lost the league in 2003 that made us even more determined to come back and show everybody that we were the best team the next season," the defender said. "We did that, as everybody knows. Getting to this final can be the same impetus for us now.

"It gives the club the feeling that we are really going in the right direction and that we can get even better. We've proved with our performance, 10 men against Barcelona, that we are one of the best teams in Europe already. It was a fantastic performance and then it does come down to the fine moments in the game that decide the result."

Oliver Kahn, meanwhile, who has been displaced by Lehmann as Germany's first-choice goalkeeper, was supportive of his rival. "Jens is mentally strong enough to deal with this," he said from the squad's training camp in Sardinia. "It's psychological nonsense if you think that something like that will repeat itself. It's a one-off. You've got to forget about it fast."

Red card keepers

June 23 1994

Italy's Gianluca Pagliuca became the first goalkeeper to be sent off at a World Cup finals after fouling Oyvind Leonhardsen of Norway in the 22nd minute of a group game at the Giants Stadium in New Jersey. It meant an early end to the game for Roberto Baggio who was sacrificed for the reserve keeper Luca Marchegiani. But Italy won the game thanks to a goal from Baggio's namesake Dino.

February 1 1995

Blackburn's Tim Flowers received what was then the fastest red card in the Premiership when he fouled the Leeds United striker Brian Deane after 72 seconds at Ewood Park. Rovers managed a 1-1 draw to extended their lead over Manchester United to five points in their title winning season. Both goals came from penalties and a fan tried to attack the referee Rodger Gifford.

February 20 2005

Carlo Cudicini missed the chance of appearing for Chelsea in the Carling Cup final against Liverpool when he was sent off in the last minute of a 1-0 defeat at Newcastle United in the FA Cup. The Italian was shown the red card for fouling Shola Ameobi, a second-half substitute.